1. One

"Mom!" Where are all my freaking books?!" I shouted from the basement of our new house. Well, recently-moved-into home. Calling it 'new' is a bit of a stretch, if I were to let out a breath the whole thing might topple onto us.

It was Monday morning and I had school in approximately twenty minutes. I didn't really want to go, considering we moved from Chicago to a small town on the edge of Iowa. I just wanted to find my books, listen to Ed Sheeran in my room, and never come out. I just want to skip the last two years of high school and become a writer.

"Ariah Louise Lehman, if you don't get your ass up these stairs and get ready for the first day of school, you'll be grounded from your books again!" My mom yelled from the kitchen. I blew my bangs out of my face and stomped up the stairs, passing my mother in the kitchen. She was looking at something on her work phone as she sipped on her coffee.

"That's it, Mother. I give up." I continued on and made my way up to the second floor.

"On what, drama queen?"

"Life. I'm giving up on life." I shut my bedroom door and threw on a pair of high waist, black shorts and tucked a grey Beatles tee into them. I put on my black Vans and went into my bathroom to fix the mop on my head. My hair wasn't too unruly so I flat ironed it and pulled my bangs back in a twist. I applied eye liner to my top lid and mascara and headed downstairs.

"I'm going to school now!" I grabbed my backpack and kept a off the key rack next to the front door.

"Have a good day my love!"

"You know I don't like it when you call me that!"

"Sorry love!"

"Don't say that either! That's only for English people!" When I got into the car I took a quick selfie for snapchat to send to my best friend Clare.

Off to the first day of hell!

I typed.

I threw my bag onto the passenger's and pulled out of the driveway.

I had to admit, we had a pretty nice sized home now. It was definitely a big change from the small apartment we owned in Chicago. We had to share two bedrooms and one bathroom with my mom, sister and I. My sister was three years older than I was and got accepted into UCLA last year. Our new house was much too large for just my mother and me but she didn't really need to pay for it. Her job paid off most of her expenses because she was a large asset to the company.

It took all of three minutes to get to the school from our house. I parked fairly close to the front doors and waited for a moment to watch a few other kids walk into the building. They were all in groups, talking and laughing together. That was the problem with small towns. You were the new shiny toy every one wants to play with but that façade only lasts for so long.

I shut off the car and grabbed my bag. I headed towards the doors everyone else was filing into. As soon as I walked in, I saw it was the cafeteria. A few of the tables nearest to me stopped their conversations to stare at me. They all began nudging each other to point me out.

My eyes began scanning the area for any possible exits and found a bathroom at the far end of the cafeteria and a hall just passed that. There was a set of doors to my right with a large man with a walkie talkie attatched to his belt, standing guard.

It was my best shot at escape from the murmurs.

"Where ya headed?" The man asked as I reached for the handle of the door.

"I'm uh... New and I wanted to get my schedule from the office." I finished and it almost sounded like a question. He nodded with a smile.

"Huh, guess I owe Terner ten... Alright, just follow this hall down and take a left. Big sign says: 'Office'. Can't miss it." He pulled the door open for me. I thanked him and rushed from the room. I took his directions and easily found the office. As soon as you walk in, a front desk is to the right and a hallway is on the far left. I walked to the front desk to find a small woman with short hair that had obviously been died one too many times, and glasses hanging on the brim of her nose, sitting in a chair filing her manicured nails.

"Excuse me... I'm a new student and I was just looking for my-"

"Schedule? That way." She checked out her nails and pointed to the hallway to the left with her file. SHE never looked up.

"Thanks, for that." I eyed her as I walked back. Some security system they have here. There was another small office area the hallway led to. Another small woman at this small office's front desk with an eighties hairstyle sat on a computer.

"Excuse me ma'am, I'm looking to get my schedule. Who do I need to see?" She looked up from her work, unlike the last woman and stood with an enthusiastic smile. She held her hand out to me.

"Its so great to meet you Ms. Lehman, I'm so glad you'll be joining us at Brownstone High. I'm Mrs. Linebeck and I work here but your counselor is Mrs. Mena and she's actually in her office now. You can head in if you want." Mrs. Linebeck's firm grasp let my hand go and pointed to another door to what seemed to be a small work office. I thanked her and knocked on the closed door.

"Why hello there, Ms. Lehman. Come on in," Mrs. Mena greeted me. She opened the door wide so I could step into the tight space. "So, you need your schedule and a tour guide. How about I print you that schedule and I'll be right back." She smiled as she clicked through her computer then left the room. She reappeared a few moments later with two pieces of paper, which both had my new schedule on them.

"You're academics is quite impressive, I might say. All honors classes while maintaining and 4.0 GPA makes you a great asset to our school." She smiled and sat behind her desk again. She pulled out her cell phone and began tapping away a message.

"Is that all?" I asked as she sat staring at her phone for a moment.

"Actually I have a Senior that will be arriving in a bit. He is going to take you through your schedule and maybe stop in a couple classes to introduce you to your teachers. You can have lunch off campus if you would like or eat in the cafeteria. In the afternoon, you can shadow him through his classes. You know, just to see how we run things." I nodded and the door behind me opened with a CLICK.

"I got your text Sherry, who's the new-" A tall, muscular boy with a delicious English accent stepped into the office. He was wearing a black t-shirt and black skinny-ish jeans. He removed his sunglasses as his brown eyes landed on me. He held his large hand out to me. "Hello love, I'm Liam, Liam Payne."